If you’re like me, you probably take a lot of photos and video with your mobile phone. The images I get with my iPhone are what I call my “memory” images; they’re not always the most pretty, but they document and record the things that are most important to me. Because of this, I want to make sure that I save these photos on my Drobo, where I know they will be safe and secure from hard-drive failure. Here is how I regularly import my iPhone images to Lightroom.
1. Create an account with Dropbox (or file-storing cloud service of your choice)
In order for this to work, you will need to have an account with a cloud-based file storing system that allows you to access the files in a file-browser on your computer (I prefer to use Dropbox and will be showing how to use this service throughout this article). Oftentimes the free versions of these services should work, depending on how many photos you will leave “in the cloud” before they are transferred over to Lightroom.
2. Install the desktop software from Dropbox
Next, download the Dropbox software to your computer, and log-in to the application once it is installed. Make sure that this app is opened all the time on your computer to ensure your photos are regularly backed up to Lightroom!
3. Install the Dropbox app to your mobile device
Go to the App store on your mobile device and download the Dropbox app. Open it up and log in to your account.
4. Turn on the “Camera Uploads” feature in the Dropbox app on your mobile device
In order for this to work, you will need to enable the “Camera Uploads” feature, so that the photos you take on your phone automatically get uploaded to Dropbox. In the Dropbox app, this is under “Settings > Camera uploads”. I would also recommend not enable the “Use Cellular Data” option, or it will use your data (and not only Wi-Fi) to upload photos and videos.
5. Set up “Auto Import” in Lightroom
Next, open up Lightroom on your computer and go to “File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings“. Here you will set the following:
- Watched Folder: This is the folder in Dropbox where your images are saved on your computer. As you can see in the example image, it should be User/username/Dropbox/Camera Uploads.
- Destination: This is the folder on your computer (or Drobo) where the new images will be stored.
- File Naming: Give your iPhone images a name (you can customize this to whatever you like).
- Information: This is metadata you can add to your images, similar to what you would find in the Import window.
Then, place a check in the box at the top that says “Enable Auto Import”. Once your photos have uploaded to Dropbox they will start to appear in Lightroom! You will need to open the Dropbox app every so often for the photos to upload to the “Camera Uploads” folder; I find myself doing this every day or so to keep them updated on a regular basis.
6. Back up the photos to keep them safe!
My entire Lightroom catalog is on my Drobo, where I know that they will stay safe and sound. Because my photos are my life and livelihood, it’s important to me to put them somewhere where they will not “disappear” if there is a hard-drive failure.
Thanks Nicole. One question: You mention iPhone in the message. Will this also work on the Android platform?
I don’t see why not! If you can upload to your Camera Uploads folder through the Dropbox app on Android, then it should work the same way.
Thank you Nicole!! I’ve been a big fan of Dropbox, it makes it so easy to copy photos from my phone to my computer. Had no idea there was an auto import function in Lightroom, this is awesome! Thanks for sharing. :)
Yes, this works for the Android Dropbox app too. I use it.
“You will need to open the Dropbox app every so often for the photos to upload to the “Camera Uploads” folder” that’s only for ios devices. dont need that on androids ;)
anyways. Good tutorial though. I havent set up an auto import for my dropbox images. I just synchronize the lightroom folder where I have my dropbox images. too lazy to set up an auto import hehe.
btw, is it possible to create auto import for several folders, or does this only work on one folder only? havent tried the auto import feature :)
I believe that Lightroom only allows one “watched” folder.
I got this functioning (thank you!) but have a question. I see that as the photos are transferred into Lightroom via Auto Import folder, they disappear from the Dropbox Camera Upload folder (which is a good thing). But if I don’t erase them from my phone, is Dropbox smart enough not to import them a second time?
What’s happening is that they are being “moved” as they are imported, not copied, so they aren’t being deleted. And Dropbox is smart enough to not copy over duplicates; I’ve been doing this for a very long time and haven’t had it mess up yet. :) It shows in the app what it has already uploaded, so it probably uses that for a reference.
Is there any application that will allow DNG or other raw files to be saved from an Android phone without the need to root the phone? Having raw files would allow much more robust image optimization to be performed in LR, PS, or onOne.
I’m not really sure about that. Have you tried the Dropbox steps above? I don’t use Android so I don’t know if it would pull the DNG file (vs. a JPEG copy).
I just went through this process and was setting up the auto import in LR. I pointed to my Camera Uploads folder and LR said the folder had to be initially empty! Do I have to delete all these from Dropbox, set up LR, and then upload them all again?
I got around this by moving all my pictures from the Camera Uploads folder to a Temp folder, set up the auto import in LR, and then moved the photos back.
A good tip.
I create a smart collection with keywords from the import (e.g. iPhone, Dropbox, import, synch etc.) to monitor the ingestion and easily find the images later.
I had the exact same question as Carol. I’m afraid that when I get DB to do my next auto upload it will see the camera uploads folder as empty because it moved them all to my watched LR folder and then reingest all my photos from my phone. I do not have it set to auto delete after uploading because this would make me nervous. I don’t even know if you can set that up on DB.
Very clear tutorial by the way!
I just got a camera with wi-fi built in. There is no Windows app I can find to transfer photos from the camera to the PC. I combined the DB solution with the iPhone app, and add in the Lightroom auto import. You have to switch the phone from the camera wi-fi to your in-house network, and open DB on the phone. I don’t see a way to get raw files yet, but I can get jpg files from my camera to Lightroom in about 15 seconds. What Carol and Kathleen described hasn’t happened to me yet. I suspect DB… Read more »
Why not just use Lightroom Mobile? Is it not the same thing?
No, Lightroom Mobile is really for editing on the go, not ingest.
Late to the party, but thank you! This information was incredibly useful. It all worked just as described.
Is there any application that will allow DNG or other raw files to be saved from an Android phone without the need to root the phone? Having raw files would allow much more robust image optimization to be performed in LR, PS, or onOne.
I’m not really sure about that. Have you tried the Dropbox steps above? I don’t use Android so I don’t know if it would pull the DNG file (vs. a JPEG copy).
I just got a camera with wi-fi built in. There is no Windows app I can find to transfer photos from the camera to the PC. I combined the DB solution with the iPhone app, and add in the Lightroom auto import. You have to switch the phone from the camera wi-fi to your in-house network, and open DB on the phone. I don’t see a way to get raw files yet, but I can get jpg files from my camera to Lightroom in about 15 seconds. What Carol and Kathleen described hasn’t happened to me yet. I suspect DB… Read more »
Why not just use Lightroom Mobile? Is it not the same thing?
No, Lightroom Mobile is really for editing on the go, not ingest.
I had the exact same question as Carol. I’m afraid that when I get DB to do my next auto upload it will see the camera uploads folder as empty because it moved them all to my watched LR folder and then reingest all my photos from my phone. I do not have it set to auto delete after uploading because this would make me nervous. I don’t even know if you can set that up on DB.
Very clear tutorial by the way!
Late to the party, but thank you! This information was incredibly useful. It all worked just as described.
Thanks Nicole. One question: You mention iPhone in the message. Will this also work on the Android platform?
I don’t see why not! If you can upload to your Camera Uploads folder through the Dropbox app on Android, then it should work the same way.
“You will need to open the Dropbox app every so often for the photos to upload to the “Camera Uploads” folder” that’s only for ios devices. dont need that on androids ;)
anyways. Good tutorial though. I havent set up an auto import for my dropbox images. I just synchronize the lightroom folder where I have my dropbox images. too lazy to set up an auto import hehe.
btw, is it possible to create auto import for several folders, or does this only work on one folder only? havent tried the auto import feature :)
I believe that Lightroom only allows one “watched” folder.
I got this functioning (thank you!) but have a question. I see that as the photos are transferred into Lightroom via Auto Import folder, they disappear from the Dropbox Camera Upload folder (which is a good thing). But if I don’t erase them from my phone, is Dropbox smart enough not to import them a second time?
What’s happening is that they are being “moved” as they are imported, not copied, so they aren’t being deleted. And Dropbox is smart enough to not copy over duplicates; I’ve been doing this for a very long time and haven’t had it mess up yet. :) It shows in the app what it has already uploaded, so it probably uses that for a reference.
Yes, this works for the Android Dropbox app too. I use it.
Thank you Nicole!! I’ve been a big fan of Dropbox, it makes it so easy to copy photos from my phone to my computer. Had no idea there was an auto import function in Lightroom, this is awesome! Thanks for sharing. :)
A good tip.
I create a smart collection with keywords from the import (e.g. iPhone, Dropbox, import, synch etc.) to monitor the ingestion and easily find the images later.
I just went through this process and was setting up the auto import in LR. I pointed to my Camera Uploads folder and LR said the folder had to be initially empty! Do I have to delete all these from Dropbox, set up LR, and then upload them all again?
I got around this by moving all my pictures from the Camera Uploads folder to a Temp folder, set up the auto import in LR, and then moved the photos back.